Posts by Youngdog

Modern life is rubbish – so why not take a trip down memory lane with Windows File Manager?

Winfile.exe

Very handy for kicking users out of files when that was a problem back in the day

Ubuntu 17.10 pulled: Linux OS knackers laptop BIOSes, Intel kernel driver fingered

Re: Lenovo does not sell laptops with Ubuntu

Sorry Wayne

https://certification.ubuntu.com/certification/make/Lenovo/

Bombastic boss gave insane instructions to sensible sysadmin, with client on speakerphone

MS Office and reg keys

A week into a new job and I was shadowing the 'senior' engineer whose response to any Excel error/crash was to uninstall and reinstall MS Office.

He gave me a withering look when I suggested all he was doing was removing and putting back a mostly static set of files and HKLM reg keys and he should be nosing around profile/HKCU instead.

Couldn't stop myself smirking though when 30-40 minutes and one seriously p**sed off user later the exact same error popped up.

Boffins find evidence of strange uranium-producing bacteria lurking underground

Re: Maximus the Confessor

"Yes I confess - I just nicked Panodorus of Alexandria's date"

Re: The usual baloney

"I have personally transmuted palladium into silver"

See, I've done a few very cool things and tried my hardest to fill my life with varied experiences and achievements (and plenty for the benefit of others too) but none of them come close to sounding as cool as that. Is your first name Zaphod?

Microsoft founder Paul Allen reveals world's biggest-ever plane

It's his I.T. background...

..resilience by design

Intel gives the world a Core i9 desktop CPU to play with

But I don't want more cores!

I want that 4.3GHz clock speed of the 7740X with the memory support and PCIe capacity of the other two.

Can someone who knows more than I obviously do about CPU/Chipset architecture please explain why Intel won't let me have my cake and eat it?

IBM marketeers rub out chopper after visit from CEO Ginni

Hmmm, an Aérospatiale/Eurocopter Dauphin 2...

...I guess IBM aren't on-board with the whole 'Hire American, Buy American' theme then

Wannacry: Everything you still need to know because there were so many unanswered Qs

Re: Oh, the irony!

Even the best advice in the world can become bad advice if the situation changes. Just because they are wrong now doesn't mean it was wrong then.

Microsoft to spooks: WannaCrypt was inevitable, quit hoarding

Re: Its like the Millennium Bug all over again

Joined-up thinking in a huge multinational company? NEVER!!!! ;-)

Its like the Millennium Bug all over again

Because of the media coverage on Friday our Group CIO ordered ALL servers (regardless of criticality and our internal change process) to be patched by EO the weekend. In the last 2 days literally 100s of people have worked their b***ocks off to get that done - now (so far, fingers crossed, touch wood) we have seen no issues all that effort will be tomorrows chip wrapping. It's the life we've chosen I'm afraid.

Linux 4.11 delayed for a week by NVMe glitches and 'oops fixes'

“but it just doesn't feel right.”

The Golden rule of managing tech - if in doubt, don't.

Despite what the the PHBs, Beancounters (and, sometimes, End Users) say whatever it is can wait another week without the sky falling in - they may not thank you for it but don't forget they would all be lining up to throw you under the bus if pushing $whatever out early created issues

Microsoft raises pistol, pulls the trigger on Windows 7, 8 updates for new Intel, AMD chips

Re: unless you are a Corporate Customer

Vendors have already lined up 'Skabylake' - 6th Gen Processor in backward compatible 7th Gen chipset for enterprise customers not ready to make the jump from Win7. Offer only lasts until Skylakes are unavailable.

Aviation regulator flies in face of UK.gov ban, says electronics should be stowed in cabin. Duh

Re: re: re: I'm confused now,

It's classified

You have the right to be informed: Write to UK.gov, save El Reg

Re: Unprecedented?

"persuade" publishers to "voluntarily" sign up to this new regulator

'Coercion' was the word I used in my submission to gov.uk

How Google.org stole the Christmas Spirit

Take the chromebooks...

..install Tails and use them to teach kids about online security and safe browsing. Probably the best education you could give them in this day and age.

How Rogue One's Imperial stormtroopers SAVED Star Wars and restored order

Re: Ha! Our first Rouge of the day!

Well spotted - Merry Christmoose!

It feels like Star Wars but...

...there is a whole fan base for the Prequels that I just don't relate to because I'm too old. For me A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back are Star Wars and Rogue One looks like the world I was in aged 8 with my Kenner AT-AT. I think a lot people who liked Force Awakens are not going to get as much fun out of Rouge One as I did. Great job.

Re: on that (lack of) accuracy claim:

Accurate =/= Precise

Obi-wan noted the marks on the Sandcrawler were precisely 2" away and to the left of where they were aimed for. How's that for pedantic AC?

AI brains take a step closer to understanding speech just like humans

@Rich 11

'There is a red building...in front of a green lawn...mowed recently'

Hey guys - we're getting somewhere...

'There's a fence in front of the house'

DOH!

King's College London staggers from outage, replaces infrastructure services head

there but for the grace of God...

Come on, we've all dropped that one massive bollock at some point

Sysadmin figures out dating agency worker lied in his profile

I once spent half a morning...

..trying to help a v. senior manager reset his domain password. After literally 1/2 a dozen rounds of him calling up, me unlocking the account, resetting the password to his desired choice (you're not allowed to do that any more!) it finally dawned on me what the problem was and I was able to close the ticket with the following comment;

" User cannot spell 'February' "

Emulating x86: Microsoft builds granny flat into Windows 10

Re: Cart before the horse

Like DrXym I've got a couple of Atom Z3735 devices and the Linx 7 isn't much bigger than a Phablet. After the failure of RT and with the new Atom x3/5/7 out I can't help but think Microsoft missed a trick not going with x64/x86 phones. It would have then been a relative doddle to put ARM emulation on top of that.

User needed 40-minute lesson in turning it off and turning it on again

Witless idiots

Not just instructions - pop ups too. It still mystifies me how some people can override the brain's unfaulting habit of automatically turning jumbled shapes into words without any conscious effort - but only when those jumbled shapes are presented in a little rectangle on a screen

"Error message? Yeah something popped up but dunno what it said - I just hit 'Cancel'. So why doesn't it work?"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGHHH!!!!

FYI Apple fans – iCloud slurps your call histories

Not all bad

I only use iCloud for contacts and an .icloud.com mail address but found it quite useful that my recent call history was restored to a replacement after the last one was stolen

NHS IT bod sends test email to 850k users – and then responses are sent 'reply all'

Disable Reply to All

Why is it that those most prone to complaining about unwanted emails cluttering up their mailbox inevitably hit 'Reply to All' thus cluttering up everyone else's mailbox! An over developed sense of irony? Tragic lack of self-awareness? Or (as I suspect) is it just an unquenchable need to let other people know how busy and/or important they think they are.

Microsoft: Watch out millennials for evil Security Essentials

Re: I know this is all based on user ignorance, but..

Corporates still running XP will undoubtedly not be using Security Essentials but the number of two-bob Home used by everyone else is a disaster waiting to happen.

BSOD screensaver...

...oh the fun we used to have with that in my NT4 days! I really should have updated my username to old-fart dog by now.

Is Google using YouTube to put one over on Samsung?

Re: So to summarise..

As someone who did sit on a mountain recently (Kilimanjaro, last week) I have no problem with 'the sky' not being limited to something above me...

So to summarise..

..'the sky' is the bit of the atmosphere that appears blue due to Rayleigh Scattering

UK copyright troll weeps, starts 20-week stretch in the cooler for beating up Uber driver

Re: Grunchy

wait, wait, wait - you get paid to eat cheezies? Teach me Senpai!

iPhone 7 first fondle

I copped a feel of the cheap looking Jet Black handset today in O2 and was just glad I had a 6s.

Phoney bling ring pinged by Tolkien's kin

Re: That depends where and what part

The first proper book I read was The Wizard of Oz so it's a shame I'll never get to read those. Or learn Russian.

Honor 8: Huawei targets millennials with high-spec cheapie. 3 words – Food pic mode

Wow

Screen and USB aside they are great specs. It's probably cutting corners like those though that's providing the margin. And that processor,in house, looks like a masterstroke.

Apple kills its Stores

It's probably to remove confusion with App Store

Windows 10 Anniversary Update completely borks USB webcams. Yay.

Re: MS is in decline, but Linux will never replace it

"The average person who is not a developer who tries to install Linux on an average box usually fails, because there is no working graphics driver, or mouse driver, etc. for some part of their machine."

This was last true 5-10 years ago

BlackBerry DTEK 50: How badly do you want a secure Android?

This one does have front facing speakers for anyone that's interested

Mad-tech labcoat-sporters DARPA pit infosec AI against itself

Re: This is were it begins... Judgement Day

Arnie should drop in wearing the outfit just for a laugh

Samsung Note 7: Probably the best phone in the world. Yeah – you heard right

Re: Probably the best (...) in the world

I remember seeing the hoardings last year saying that, in a taste test, 7/10 people preferred Carlsberg to Stella.That struck me as a bit like saying you think horse p**s tastes better than cat p**s - you're still drinking p**s!

Windows 10 Pro Anniversary Update tweaked to stop you disabling app promos

If you don't know how enable/disable any setting applied by GPO then you really shouldn't be using the Pro edition

Ed Vaizey booted to backbench, Hancock booted to DCMS

@ Rich 11

I'm glad we have a monarch as our Head of State - I much prefer someone who had no more choice than who's womb they sprang from than some grubby schemer who genuinely thinks they're above everyone else and deserves to rule. Leadership is a burden - not a prize.

"Those who seek power are not worthy of that power"

Plato

"The desire to be a politician should be enough to ban you from ever becoming one"

Billy Connolly

Smartphones aren't tiny PCs, but that's how we use them in the West

Can a billion people be wrong?

As someone who has tried eating fish porridge for lunch I would say - yes, most definitely.

Parliament takes axe to 2nd EU referendum petition

@AC

So a friend of over 20 years standing has suddenly become a See You Next Tuesday because they had the nerve to hold a different opinion to you on something? I think I know who is the bigger cunt.

Bill Gates cooks up poultry recipe for Africans' paltry existence

Yeah Bill, the thing is...

...any normal, healthy, functioning society would establish a supply chain to provide poultry sale for rearing. These are badly run countries in the modern world and for all your brains, money, power and influence chucking a few chickens around isn't going to fix anything.

Cock fight? Not half. Microsoft beats down Apple in Q1

(sigh) Microsoft have made a good product

Got hold of my firms Win10 RC and tried it on a gen 1 Surface Pro some high-band early, early 8.1 adopter had tossed aside. Worked a treat. Does 90% of what I need and runs on an enterprise platform without breaking a sweat. They could sell millions.

Google-backed solar electricity facility sets itself on fire

@Boldman

Behold - the Archimedes Death Ray!

http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/experiments/deathray/10_ArchimedesResult.html

Our old enemy - the Sun!

(shakes fist at the sky) Grrr. Damn you!